


Heart Strings

by Queenbean3



Category: Coraline (2009), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Genre: Crossover Pairings, Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff without Plot, Friendship/Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-08 00:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11635230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queenbean3/pseuds/Queenbean3
Summary: A collection of oldish Kuboline drabbles from my Tumblr in no particular order. Kind of connected to my main fanfic Cherry Blossoms in Winter and kind of not.





	1. You’re never this quiet, what’s wrong?

“That constellation looks like a fat porcupine,” Coraline said, pointing up at the starry sky. “What do you think it looks like?”

Kubo lay on the grass beside her, staring up at the stars in complete silence.

Coraline turned her head to look at him, eyebrows crinkled with confusion. “Kubo?”

He blinked and turned to look back at her, as if he’d forgotten she was there. “Huh?”

She frowned. “Okay, what’s going on? You’re never this quiet. What’s wrong?”

Kubo sighed and stared at the sky again. “I was just thinking that… Never mind, it’s stupid.”

Coraline arched a concerned eyebrow. “Come on, you can tell me. I don’t care if it’s stupid. Just say it.”

He sighed again and turned his head toward her, long bangs falling over his face. “Coraline, I… I wish I could stay here with you forever. Just like this.”

She gaped at him in shock, cheeks turning pink. “Huh?”

“It’s strange,” Kubo went on, not noticing her reaction. “You live in a different part of the world thousands of years in the future. We can only see each other like this in our dreams, and we may never meet face to face. But when I’m with you I feel like… like this is normal. Like this is where I’m supposed to be. But I’m not sure if those feelings are mine, or if they’re because of the string.”

Coraline lifted her left hand. Her pinkie finger was tied to Kubo’s right with a red string. It had been there ever since he had stumbled into her dreams weeks ago. He called it the Red String of Fate, and according to legend it was supposed to bring destined lovers together.

Without saying a word, she reached to hold his hand. Kubo flinched in surprise and looked with one wide eye.

Coraline smiled at him. “Honestly, Kubo, most of the time when we hang out, I forget the string’s even there. I dunno if I believe in fate or soulmates, or whatever this thing means. The only thing I know is that I like you, and I think you’re awesome. I don’t need a magical destiny string to tell me that.”

Kubo continued to stare at her in astonishment, cheeks slowly turning red.

Coraline snickered and poked one of his blushing cheeks with one finger. “Heh, you should see your face right now! You look like you ate too many cherries!”

“N-No I don’t!” Kubo retorted, flustered and blushing even more. “You ate more than I did!”

She laughed and let go of his hand to ruffle his long hair. That got him laughing, too, and soon they had both forgotten all about the red string.


	2. We started with one and now we have seven. You have no chill.

“Did you get more flowers since I was here last?”

Kubo and Coraline were in the Pink Palace Apartments’ green house. Seven little camellia shrubs in plastic pots sat on a table in a row before them. The flowers were a mix of red, pink, yellow and white.

“Yep,” Coraline said, pouring water into each pot from a watering can. “The ones you brought me were so nice that I decided they needed some friends.”

Kubo chuckled. “We started with one and now we have seven. You have no chill.”

“We?” Coraline echoed, eyebrows arching in amusement. “This is my green house, beetle boy. And when did you learn to start talking like that?”

Kubo grinned and shrugged. “From you, of course. Who else?”

Coraline playfully rolled her eyes and went back to watering the shrubs. “I’m surprised you got me those first flowers, actually. I didn’t know you cared that much.”

He scratched the back of his head, feeling self-conscious as he looked down at his sandals. “Well, they’re in season back home, and I know how much you like plants, so…” He trailed off, too embarrassed to continue.

“They were pink and red camellias,” Coraline said, not looking up from her work. “You know what they mean, right?”

Kubo’s blood turned cold and his palms became sweaty. Of course he knew what they meant. His mother had told him the story of what camellias meant when he was small. They represented the divine and had different meanings based on their colors. Did Coraline know all that? She knew so much about plants, how could she not know?

“Camellia japonica is the state flower of Alabama,” Coraline said casually. “Funny, since it’s not even native to Alabama. They’re from Japan, of course. It’s right there in the name.”

“O-Of course,” Kubo said, not knowing if he should feel relieved or disappointed that she hadn’t caught on.

At last she put the watering can down on the table and looked him straight in the eye. “That’s not all,” she said. “Pink camellias mean longing. And red means passion. Put them together and you have romantic love.”

Kubo’s single eye went wide. His heart jumped in his throat, his mouth went dry, and his palms were slick with sweat. She knew. She knew all along.

“Oh, r-really?” he said with an awkward chuckle. “What a surprise! I, uh, I had no idea!”

Coraline didn’t look convinced. She was smiling in a sly, knowing way. “Uh huh. Sure you didn’t.”

Kubo’s mind raced for a new conversation topic. “Uh, y-you can also make tea with the leaves!” he blurted out. “A-And the oil from the seeds is good for your hair!”

She looked genuinely surprised by this. “Oh, really? Cool, I bet Misses Spink and Forcible would like camellia tea.” Then she was back to smiling in that sly, knowing way. “But that’s not why you gave me those flowers, is it?”

Kubo had to swallow a thick lump in his throat to answer. “Uhh…” was all that came out.

Coraline grinned hugely, eyes lightning up with glee. “Oh my god, I knew it! You’ve got a crush on me!”

“No!” Kubo blurted out instinctively. “I mean, yes! I mean… Aaaaa!! It wasn’t supposed to go like this!” He groaned and buried his face in his hands, too embarrassed to look at her.

Coraline squealed and bounced up and down excitedly. “Eeeee!! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! You like me, you like me, you like me!” Then she flung her arms around Kubo, lifted him off the ground and kissed him on the cheek.

“Gah!!” Kubo yelped in surprise. He squirmed and kicked to get away but he was trapped in her hug. “What was that for?!”

Coraline’s freckled cheeks were flushed pink and she was grinning from ear to ear. “Because I like you, too, you dork!”

Laughing again, she put him down and kept her arms tight around him. Kubo remained in shock for a few more seconds before he started laughing as well and hugged her back.


	3. I’m sorry, but that was adorable.

“Hey, Kubo! Look what I made!”

Coraline had a simple origami creation in her hands. Kubo recognized it instantly. It was one of the first things his mother taught him how to make. Coraline’s was a lot more colorful, each of its four sections filled in with a different hue.

“A fortune teller!” he said. “Where did you learn to make this?”

Coraline puffed out her chest with pride. “Please, every kid in the second grade knows how to make these. We call them cootie catchers.”

“What’s a cootie?” Kubo asked. “And how do catch one?”

“It doesn’t matter, they’re made up. Now let’s play the game! Pick a color, any color.”

Kubo studied the four colors carefully. They were green, red, yellow and blue. “Hmm… I choose yellow.”

“Yellow,” Coraline echoed. She opened and closed the fortune teller, saying each letter of the word aloud. “Y-E-L-L-O-W.”

Now there were numbers instead of colors, except Kubo didn’t recognize them. The symbols were unfamiliar to him, so he chose one at random that looked like a triangle. “This one.”

“Four,” Coraline said. She worked the folds back and forth, counting as she went. “One, two, three, four.”

There were colors on the flaps again, different from the ones before; pink, orange, purple and brown.

“This is your final choice,” Coraline said gravely. “Choose wisely, for this will forever change your future.”

Kubo tried not to snicker at her, knowing full well that she was joking. He made his choice. “Brown.”

Coraline lifted the brown flap. There was a drawing of a yellow slug underneath. “Ahh!” she wailed dramatically. “What rotten luck! It says you’ll wake up next morning with slugs in your pants!”

Kubo burst out laughing at that. “Ha ha ha! Oh no!” he cried in mock horror. “Not slugs in my pants! Anything but that! Give me one more chance, wise fortune teller!”

“Very well,” Coraline said solemnly, closing the paper back to its first position. “Choose carefully, and perhaps you may change your fate.”

Kubo studied the four colors in deep concentration. “Red.”

Coraline opened and closed the flaps, saying the letters of the word out loud. “R-E-D.”

There were new numbers inside. Again Kubo didn’t recognize them. He chose the one that reminded him of a magatama. Those were talismans of good fortune, so maybe this number that looked like it would be lucky. “This one.”

“Nine,” Coraline said. The flaps opened and closed repeatedly. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.”

Now there were new flaps inside the paper. They each had a different drawing on them. Kubo didn’t recognize any of them, but there was one that vaguely resembled two magatama facing each other. Maybe this one was twice as lucky.

“I choose this,” he said, pointing to the shape.

“Ah, the heart.” Coraline lifted the flap. Then she gasped dramatically. “Oh my! What a surprise!”

“What?” Kubo asked. “What is it? What’s my fortune?”

Coraline grinned. “It says someone thinks you’re cute!”

Kubo’s entire face turned red. “Coraline!!”

She doubled over laughing. “Ha ha ha! I’m sorry, but that was adorable.”

“I’m not adorable.” Kubo said with a pout. He raised his arms to flex his skinny biceps. “I am manly as my father before me!”

Coraline sniggered. “No, you’re not. You’re twelve.”


	4. Sing to me, please.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This drabble is an AU where Kubo and Coraline are married and have a child.

Kubo strummed his shamisen and circled around the carpet, keeping the origami puppets moving. A three-foot-tall skeleton had a paper monkey trapped in one fist and a beetle-shaped man in the other. A tiny boy made of red paper was on top of the giant’s skull.

“And then,” Kubo narrated. “Just as the giant skeleton was about to bite the heads off poor Monkey and Beetle, Kubo pulled one last sword from its head. He had found it; the Sword Unbreakable!”

Five-year-old Naomi Jones sat in her mother’s lap, dressed in striped pajamas and her brown eyes wide with wonder. “Yaaay!” she cheered, waving her short arms over her pigtailed head. “What happened next, daddy?”

Kubo grinned, lamplight glinting off his one eye. He played more notes on his shamisen and the skeleton puppet began to collapse, piece by piece. “It was the sword’s magic that held him together! Without it, he was just a pile of bones!”

“Oh no!” Naomi gasped, pressing her hands to her chubby cheeks in distress. “What happened to Monkey and Beetle?” She looked up at her mother, eyes wide with worry. “Are they okay? They don’t get hurt, right?”

“Don’t ask me,” Coraline chuckled. “This is your dad’s story.”

“Fear not, little one!” Kubo said theatrically. With more music the puppets acted out his words. “Beetle caught Kubo and Monkey as they fell, and he flew them out of the cave! They landed at the shore of the Long Lake, safe at last and one step closer to finding the magical armor!”

“And on that exciting note,” Coraline said, lifting Naomi in her arms and standing up from the rocking chair. “It’s time for this little adventurer to go to bed.”

At her cue, Kubo’s music stopped and the puppets fell to the floor lifeless. “To be continued!”

“What?!” the little girl whined. “But the story’s not over yet! How did Kubo find the rest of the armor? And what about his aunts? They’re still hunting him!”

Kubo shouldered the shamisen and turned down the covers on Naomi’s bed. “Don’t you worry, little one. You’ll hear the next part of the story tomorrow night. For now you need to sleep.”

Naomi was still pouting as Coraline lowered her down to the mattress. “But I’m too excited to sleep,” she whined. “Mommy? Sing to me, please.”

Coraline sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the covers up around the girl. “Okay, but you have to go to sleep when I’m done. Deal?”

“Deal.” Naomi snuggled in, hugging her favorite stuffed dinosaur toy.

Coraline began to sing. Her voice was soft and gentle, and she stroked Naomi’s hair lovingly. “Oh, my twitchy witchy girl, I think you are so nice; I give you bowls of porridge and I give you bowls of ice…cream. I give you lots of kisses and I give you lots of hugs; but I never give you sandwiches with greasy worms and bugs…in.”

By the end of the song Naomi’s eyelids were dropping and her mouth stretched wide in a yawn. “Thanks, mommy…” she muttered sleepily.

Coraline kissed her forehead. “You’re welcome, munchkin. Good night, and have sweet dreams.”

As she stood up, Kubo bent down to kiss Naomi as well. “We love you, little one. Never forget that.”

As their daughter drifted off to sleep, Kubo and Coraline turned off the lights and left her bedroom door open wide enough for the nightlight in the hall to shine in.

Then Coraline noticed Kubo’s single eye shining with unshed tears. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice a whisper so not to wake their child.

“Nothing,” Kubo whispered back, wiping his tears dry with his sleeve. “I was just thinking of how my mother used to sing to me…”

“Aww, Kubo…” Coraline murmured. She put her arms around him and rested her chin on his shoulder. “Next time you can sing the lullaby.”

“Thank you,” he sighed, returning her embrace.


	5. Meeting Online

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This drabble is an AU where Kubo lives in the same time period as Coraline. They're both still children in this one.

Coraline first saw the magical origami videos on Vine. It was all Wybie and the kids at school were talking about, and her parents had recently given her a smart phone for her birthday. After watching the first three videos she could see why they were causing such a stir. Paper folding itself into shapes like monsters and samurai was amazing enough, but they moved and acted as if they had a life of their own.

But that wasn’t all. The videos were telling stories. Some of them fit neatly into the six second time limit. Others were multi chapter tales that lasted over several videos. Each one was more captivating than the last. By the time the sun went down that day, Coraline found she had spent 5 hours watching these videos.

When she had finished watching them all, Coraline decided to leave comments on each one. Such incredible talent deserved to be praised, and she hoped the amateur filmmaker from Japan would be able to understand her even though she couldn’t comment in Japanese.

The next morning to her surprise the creator replied. He thanked her for her thoughtful comments and apologized for not knowing much English. Coraline replied back, thanking him for replying and apologizing for not knowing much Japanese.

Then he made a joke and asked her what her life was like in America. Coraline talked about her family and her neighbors and her school, and told him her hobbies. Kubo seemed fascinated by her tales. She tried to find more information about him so she could talk to him more, but was little personal information in his profile, just that his name was Kubo and that he lived in Japan. Even so, he seemed eager to have someone to talk to, and she enjoyed talking to him.

Soon their conversations moved to Skype. Here, where no one else could read their conversations, Kubo began to open up and share more details about himself. He told Coraline about his family, how he lost his parents and two aunts and now lived with his elderly grandfather. He told her about his missing left eye, and his love of shamisen music. He even played for her in their first video chat.

With each new story, Coraline saw how alone Kubo truly was. He was an Internet celebrity but he had no friends and almost no family. On top of that, she missed him when she couldn’t talk to him. This casual cyber friendship was getting serious.

One night they talked about meeting in person. They soon concluded it wasn’t possible yet. They were both so young, and neither of their legal guardians would allow them to travel across the Pacific Ocean to meet a person they barely knew. Feeling discouraged, they changed the subject and eventually said good night.

The following week Kubo logged into Vine and discovered that Coraline had created her own account. And she had already posted several videos. The first one was of herself talking to the camera, the second starred the black cat grooming itself in a very undignified position, the third was of her father singing while cooking breakfast while her mother drank coffee and looked tired and grumpy in the background. There were videos of each of the neighbors, too; Misses Spink and Forcible drinking tea with their dogs, Mr. B doing his exercises on the roof, and Wybie playing with banana slugs.

Kubo made sure to leave a comment on each one.


	6. You're breaking my heart, babe

“A school dance?”

Coraline nodded, pink and blue hair swishing back and forth. She and Kubo were sitting in the field of tall grass between his cliffside home and the village across the river. The sun was setting and the sky was turning the clouds different shades of violet, red, and gold.

“It’s my first one for high school,” Coraline said. “Wybie’s my date again, of course. I’m pretty excited, but I wish you could come, too.”

Kubo smiled crookedly, long bangs and ponytail rustling in the breeze. “So do I. Too bad there’s hundreds of years between us.”

She pouted at the red string tied to her left pinky. “Yeah, a fat load of good this dumb thing is. How are we supposed to be together forever when we can only see each other in our dreams?”

Kubo rubbed his end of the string, tied around his right pinky. “I wish I knew,” he said with a sigh. “I love seeing you like this, but knowing I can’t be with you when I’m awake is torture. I can’t stop thinking about you all day.”

“Aww,” Coraline said, cheeks flushing pink as she wrapped her arm around him and pulled him into a sideways hug. “You’re breaking my heart, babe. I always miss you and think about you when I’m awake, too.”

He rested his head on her shoulder and slipped his hand into hers, admiring her glitter nail polish. “What I wish most is that I could introduce you to my parents. Mother would like you, and Father would love your jokes.”

She chuckled and stroked his long hair. “I’d better learn to tell jokes in Japanese, then.”

“I tell them about you all the time, you know,” he went on. “Every day before I go home I walk to the graveyard and talk to their lanterns at the same boulder.” He lifted his head to gaze into her eyes, their faces only inches apart. “I tell them about how brave, smart, and funny you are, and the way your nose crinkles when you laugh, and how your eyes turn golden brown when the sun shines just right.”

Coraline locked eyes with him, her freckled cheeks turning a deeper shade of pink. “Wow… ” she breathed. Then she snickered. “Sounds like you’re in love with me.”

“I am,” Kubo said, smiling warmly and raising a hand to cup her cheek. “I love you so much, and I wish I could see you smiling just like this, brighter than this sunset, for the rest of my life.”

She brushed his bangs away from his face, tracing the edge of his eyepatch with her thumb. “You really have a way with words, beetle boy.”

His cheeks flushed and he rested his forehead against hers. “If you like them, I’ve got more.”

“Okay,” she murmured. “Tell me more. Then you can kiss me.”

He cleared his throat, preparing his final speech. “I just want you to know…No matter how far apart time and space may keep us, even if I never get to see your lovely face or hear your voice when I’m awake…I will always love you, Coraline, and I will never break your heart.”

She sniffled, eyes stinging with tears. “Damn it, Kubo… That was so beautiful it’s making me cry.”

He raised his other hand to her face, now cupping both her cheeks. “Then I’ll kiss you, so you’ll have something to smile about instead.”

And that was exactly what he did.


End file.
